Video Poker Sites

How To Play

To play video poker you simply need to know how to play a little bit of real poker. You only need to know what the hand rankings are to get by. The hand rankings are as follows

• High Card, such as an Ace high hand
• Pair
• 2 pair
• 3 of a kind
• Straight
• Flush (5 of the same suit)
• Full house (one pair and 3 of a kind together)
• Straight Flush
• Royal Flush (T J Q K A of the same suit)

The goal of the game is to make the best possible hand by selecting and drawing cards. Most machines feature the 5 card draw version of poker. You are dealt 5 cards and have to choose which ones you want to keep and which ones to get rid of. Once you choose, you are dealt new cards in place of the ones you got rid of. You now have to make the best possible hand with these 5 cards. No more cards are dealt and you either win or lose. The process just keeps repeating.

The machines are just like slots as far as operating them. You insert money into the machine and then select how much you wish to play for each hand. To select cards to throw away or keep, you either use a touch screen or there will be a button assigned to each card. You may also find a deal button to make the game start.

Odds and payout percentages

Your payout will depend on the machines payout table. The better your hand the more you win. For example a pair may only get your money back on hand. However, the flush may get you 20-1. This means if you bet $1 on the hand, you would $20 for making a flush.

There are variations of the game that you will find depending on which casino or machine you play. The most common are called Jacks or Better machines. These require you to at least make a pair of Jacks to win. Other machines will have wild cards that can act as anything you like.

The most popular video poker games today are the ones found online. Online video poker is exactly the same as it would be in a casino with one small detail, you can play online video poker anytime, anywhere you want.

Video poker history

Video poker first came to light back in the 1970s during the computer boom. These original machines are far behind what we have today, but the initial game play and overall characteristics have stayed much the same over the years.

Video poker machines started become very popular in casinos in the mid-80s, as people found them less intimidating than table games. You could sit down by yourself at a video poker machine without the fear of making a mistake.